Flow-reversal propeller pump



Jan. 12, 1965 L. DRAGO 3,165,064

FLOW-REVERSAL PROPELLER PUMP Filed Aug. 5, 1963 F/EJ 46 42 F 8 FIG. 2

A B C 17 70 56 a 62 /4 J r 26 L H INV NTOR.

- LEO DRAGO jad/y'fifld/ ATTORNEYS .the associatedtubular body or support-core.

United States Patent The present invention refers to a propeller pump fit for reversing the flow direction of a liquid.

For some usages such as in the chemical industries in general and particularly in the textile industry, it is required that some treatments be made under circulation of liquids first in one direction and thereafter in the opposite direction.

We may quote byway of example'the treatments for dyeing, washing and other operations to be made on textile fibers taken up in spools, cakes or reels. The textile material so taken up is in general placed on a support-core, which is suitably drilled and through which the treatment bath circulates in both directions, that is from the core inside to the exterior thereof through the yarn and thereafter in the contrary direction from the exterior to the core inside.

For these operations in general it is made use of centrifugal pumps of proper head so as to secure a sufficient 'minimum pressure to enable a constant uniform flow of the treatment bath through the textile material to be treated, and which is wound up or anyway arranged on Considering the particular features and characteristics of the centrifugal pumps (which are not reversible in that the reversal of their rotation-direction does not reverse; too, the

circulation direction of the liquid) and keeping in mind 1 the requirements hitherto intended to have the treatment bath circulating first in one direction and thereafter in the opposite direction, the conventional equipment for these treatments turns out quite complicated in that the connection between the pump and the treatment bath is to be made by pipes, cocks, valves, etc. so that the pump may have the treatment bath circulating first in one direction and then in the opposite direction in the aforementioned equipment. 7

The complicated construction of the equipment gives etficiency is concerned. Further, it is essential to have skilled labor available to operate the equipment, because if the operations for reversing the liquid circulation are made by hand, then a particular skill and attentiona're required to carry out the liquid circulation reversal in a short time. It is to be understood that if such an operation is automatic, then the equipment is more and more complicated and liable to failures and drawbacks.

Moreover, in some cases such as in the treatment of yarns, reversal of liquid circulation has to take place periodically, and after pre-established and programmed time periods.

It is an object of the present invention to reverse in a simple and quick way the circulating direction of a treatment bath in any equipment or apparatus for chemical industries in general, and for the textile industry in particular, by having such circulation reversal in a very short time without requiring any operation of valves and cut-01f members'in general. On the other hand and always in relation to the invention features, it is possible to achieve an easy regulation of the circulating fluid amount, and the embodiment of the associated regulation members is simple and easy, the size and weight thereof are minimum and they can be handled also by unskilled persons.

' rise to considerable losses in so far as the hydrodynamic 'ice The propeller pump according to the invention and having at least a propeller member associated with a diffuser within an open chamber in axial opposite positions, is characterized in that the back opening of said chamber is ring-shaped and connected to a semitoroidal annular chamber, said annular chamber deflecting the liquid flow of about 180 and directing it, in countercurrent to the pump impeller, towards an annular opening coaxial to the chamber front opening of the semitoroidal annular chamber whose other opening is the second opening of both pump openings coaxial to the pump impeller, with which there are associated reversal means to cause reversal of the impeller rotation direction.

An advantageous embodiment of the propeller pump according to the invention has three coaxial members, the middle member thereof forming the impeller chamher and being connected at its back end to a semitoroidal annular pipe fitting, which deflects the liquid flow of about 180; the impeller chamber has at its front end a pipe fitting with two openings, that is one placed on the impeller axis and the other (annular-shaped opening) coaxial to the first one. By taking into due account the proper features of the propeller pumps, the limited head of such pumps can be easily increased by providing an impeller with two or more propeller members, and placing, moreover, in the semitoroidal pipe fitting or near thereto baffle members to control the liquid flow deflection so as to have small pressure losses. 7

The invention will now be described hereinafter with reference to. the accompanying drawing, which shows, by way of example, only a preferred embodiment of the impeller pump according to the invention.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is an axial section of the pump, and

FIGURE 2 is a diagrammatic axial section view of the pump shown in FIGURE 1, and as fitted to feed a treatment tank.

With reference to FIG. 1, two propellers 12 and 14 are fittedon the shaft 10; the propellers 12 and 14 are arranged so as to form a single unit constituting the impeller, which on its front side is provided with a nose cap 16 associated with a first diffuser 13. A second diffuser 20 is inserted between the propellers 12 and 14, and serves to convey the liquid flow from one propeller to the other.

The pump stator is constituted by three complementary members A, B, C, which are arranged side by side and mechanically interfitted so as to form a single body secured to the machine plate D.

The-first of such members constitutes a pipe fitting for the pump pipes, and has a first circular opening 22, which is coaxial to the axis of pump shaft 10 and wherein the blades of diffuser 18, as mentioned above, are arranged and suitably secured to an annular wall 24, defining the outline of opening 22. A second annular opening 26 is provided in this first complementary member A, this said second opening being defined by an annular wall 28 constituting the outside wall of said complementary member A and having at its edge a flange 30 to connect the pump pipe as above referred to. It is to be understood that the annular opening 26 is coaxial to circular opening 22.

The fitting member A forms at one of its ends a header between the pump and the associated pipes, said header having at its other end a second flange 32, which can be coupled to a counterfiange-34 of the middle comple- The middle complementary member B has a cylindrical housing 36, wherein are placed the propellers 12 and 3 a 14 and baffle 20. This housing is connected, practically without any discontinuance, to the ends of annular wall 24 of header member A, and is associated with a frustoconical annular chamber 38 formed by the associated walls 443 and 42, which are substantially parallel to each other so that the inside wall 46 connects at one of its ends to the front end of housing 36 and the wall 42 connects at one of its ends to the end of header wall 28. The third complementary member C constitutes a baffle member and has a head 44 holding, the tight members of the shaft lull, said head 44 being suitably secured to the pump support frame D. This head-has at its periphery the semi-circular outside wall 46 and inside wall 48 defining an annular semitoroidal chamber 58, whose openings are connected, respectively: one to the rear part of annular chamber of propellers 12 and 14, and the other-outside the first oneto the already considered annular chamber 38. The middle member B and the baflle member C provide at their adjoining ends the flanges 52 and 54- for their reciprocal connection.

This pump arrangement provides the openings 22 and 26 to enable the liquid to flow, and are coaxial thereto so as to allow the liquid flow to take place in one direction-as well as in the opposite direction, (see the arrows in FIG. 1) by simple reversal of the rotation direction of shaft and therefore of theimpeller. If the pump is driven by an electric motor (as in the practice), reversal of the pump rotation direction is caused only by reversal of the electric motor feeding;

The blades of diifusers 18 and 24) direct the liquid easy and simple to embody, compact and small, and its threads in the required direction with respect to the impeller so as to cause the liquid circulation between the inlet and outlet openings with a good head in order to achieve a suitable etliciency, which is in practice always greater than that of a conventional propeller pump.

The head of the pump according to the invention is established by the sum of the first andsecond propeller heads, and it remains unaltered and independent from the rotation direction of the impeller itself, that is when the impeller performs its rotation in a given direction, then the propeller 12, upon receiving the liquid as sucked from propeller 14, increases the pressure of this liquid and when occurring reversal of the rotation direction, propeller 14 increases the pressure of the liquid as sucked by propeller 12. p

The connection of the pump as above mentioned to the associated utilization member can take place, e.g. as illustrated in FIG. 2, wherein a pipe fittingG constituted by two walls 60 (inside wall) and 62 (outside wall) is provided between the pump'and the bottom of a tank F. The

first wall defines a pipe 6d connected to the opening 22 and the second wall defines an annular pipe connected in turn to the opening 26. The inside wall 60 terminates at its end with a diffuser 68 extending for a length upwards from the tank bottom- The outside wall 62 is, on the contrary, tightly secured at its edge 70 to the edge of a corresponding opening machined in the tank bottom so that the annular'pipe 66 ends at this tank bottom.

A regulatable control member H is interposed between pipes 64 and 66 so as to establish a direct communication between said two pipes, and the passage opening can be regulated in a proper way so as to control the liquid circulation Within the tank F.

It is to be understood that pipe fitting G connecting the pump totank F or to any other container, e.g. an autoclave, must have the required dimension and shape features, that is this pipe fitting can be rectilinear, curvilinear or also mixtilinear, and the wall 60 defining the insidepipe 64in lieu of terminating with the dilfuser 68--can extend into the container to be associated with other members, e.g. a header or the like.

efiiciency and performance enable working of close textile materials, or working with a rather high liquid head. Moreover, the regulatable control valve H, besides allow-v ing the regulation of the pump head and pump delivery, enables also the pump exploitation at its maximum head and delivery.

It is to be understood that this invention covers also, in general, the chemical equipment relating thereto, and particularly an apparatus to treat yarns embodying the pump in accordance with the present invention.

It will be understood that the form; of the invention herewith shown and described is a preferred embodiment thereof, and various modifications and changes can be carried out therein without departing from the spirit, of

the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

I claim: 7

l. A liquidfiow reversing propeller pump including a liquid inlet and outlet section, an impeller section and a flow directionreversing section, said flow direction reversing section comprising a member having a semi-toroidal passage therethrough and having an inlet end and an outlet end facing in the same general direction, said semitoroidal passage having a substantial radius of curvature to provide for liquid direction flow reversal with a minimum of turbulence, saidliquid inlet and outlet section comprising a generally cylindrical inlet passage and'an' annular liquid outlet passage surrounding said inlet passage and separated therefrom by a common wall member; said impeller section including an annular pumping passage communicating at one end with the inlet passage other end with the outlet end of said flow direction reversing section; an impeller shaft extending axially through the annular pumping passage, a pair of axially spaced liquid impeller means secured to rotate with the impeller shaft, and a liquid flow diffuser member positioned in said annular pumping passage between said pair of spaced impeller means.

2. Theinvention defined in claim 1 including a further diifuser member mounted in said inlet passage.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,588,588 6/26 1,995,405 3/35 Thorley 6818 4 2,176,220 10/ 39 Marshall 68184 2,322,743 6/43 Bell 68l89 2,482,319 9/49 Casse 68--184 2,584,878 2/52 Howell 230122 X 2,627,164 2/53 Halpern 230-- X 2,978,169 4/61 Stanton 230l22 X 3,045,895 7/62 Bolter et al. 3,078,671 2/ 63 Senser.

FOREIGN PATENTS 971,613 10/50 France.

885,050 8/53 Germany.

870,262 6/61 Great Britain.

JOSEPH H. BRANSON, In, Primary Examiner.

IRVIN BUNEVICH, Examiner. 

1. A LIQUID FLOW REVERSING PROPELLER PUMP INCLUDING A LIQUID INLET AND OUTLET SECTION, AN IMPELLER SECTION AND A FLOW DIRECTION REVERSING SECTION, SAID FLOW DIRECTION REVERSING SECTION COMPRISING A MEMBER HAVING A SEMI-TOROIDAL PASSAGE THERETHROUGH AND HAVING AN INLET END AND AN OUTLET END FACING IN THE SAME GENERAL DIRECTION, SAID SEMITOROIDAL PASSAGE HAVING A SUBSTANTIAL RADIUS OF CURVATURE TO PROVIDE FOR LIQUID DIRECTION FLOW REVERSAL WITH A MINIMUM OF TURBULENCE, SAID LIQUID INLET AND OUTLET SECTION COMPRISING A GENERALLY CYLINDRICAL INLET PASSAGE AND AN ANNULAR LIQUID OUTLET PASSAGE SURROUNDING SAID INLET PASSAGE AND SEPARATED THEREFROM BY A COMMON WALL MEMBER; SAID IMPELLER SECTION INCLUDING AN ANNULAR PUMPING PASSAGE COMMUNICATING AT ONE END WITH THE INLET PASSAGE AND AT THE OTHER END WITH THE INLET END OF THE FLOW DIRECTION REVERSING SECTION AND AN ANNULAR INTERMEDIATE PASSAGE SURROUNDING SAID PUMPING PASSAGE AND COMMUNICATING AT ONE END WITH THE ANNULAR OUTLET PASSAGE AND AT THE OTHER END WITH THE OUTLET END OF SAID FLOW DIRECTION REVERSING SECTION; AN IMPELLER SHAFT EXTENDING AXIALLY THROUGH THE ANNULAR PUMPING PASSAGE, A PAIR OF AXIALLY SPACED LIQUID IMPELLER MEANS SECURED TO ROTATE WITH THE IMPELLER SHAFT, SAND A LIQUID FLOW DIFFUSER MEMBER POSITIONED IN SAID ANNULAR PUMPING PASSAGE BETWEEN SAID PAIR OF SPACED IMPELLER MEANS. 